There are now tens of millions of digital ‘platform workers’ that live all over the world, doing work that outsourced via platforms or apps in the “gig economy”. Lacking the ability to collectively bargain, platform workers have little ability to negotiate wages and working conditions with their employers who are often on the other side of the world. This project undertakes innovative research that focuses on these workers, their experiences, labour processes, and the organisation of their work. The platform economy is rapidly expanding, particularly in developing and emerging economies. With this, the future of work is becoming the present and there is an urgent need to engage with its consequences. Contemporary researchers, as well as existing political and regulative frameworks, lack the appropriate methods and conceptual approaches to make sense of the phenomena.
The main objective of the project is to set up a long-term structure to form a ‘Fairwork Foundation’ that will be committed to highlighting best and worst practices in the emerging platform economy. Selected stakeholders, including governments, platform operators, unions and donors will be consulted to engage in a dialogue to establish the Foundation. Much like the Fairtrade Foundation has been able to certify the production chains of commodities like coffee and chocolate, the Fairwork Foundation will certify the production networks of the platform economy. This seeks to harness ‘consumer power’, along with leverage from workers and platforms, to significantly contribute to the welfare and job quality of digital workers.
Woodcock, J. and Graham, M.(2020)The Gig Economy A Critical Introduction. Polity.
Chapters
Graham, M. and Anwar, M.A.(2018)"Two Models for a Fairer Sharing Economy" In: The Cambridge Handbook of Law and Regulation of the Sharing Economy
Nestor Davidson, John Infranca, and MicheÌle Finck Davidson, N., Infranca, J. and Finck, M. (eds.). New York: Cambridge University Press. 328-340.
FREDMAN, S., du Toit, D. and GRAHAM, M.(2020)"Towards legal regulation of platform work: Theory and practice", Industrial Law Journal (Juta). 41(2)1493-1523.
Heeks, R., Graham, M., Mungai, P., Van Belle, J.-.P. and Woodcock, J.(2020)"Systematic Evaluation of Platform Work Against Decent Work Standards: Development of a New Framework and Application in the Global South", Digital Development Working Paper. (85).
KATTA, S., Howson, K. and GRAHAM, M.(2020)"The Fairwork Foundation: Action Research on the Gig Economy", Global Dialogue.
Graham, M. and Woodcock, J.(2018)"Towards a fairer platform economy: introducing the Fairwork Foundation", Alternate Routes: A Journal of Social Critical Research. 29242-253.
Internet publications
Howson, K., GRAHAM, M. and KATTA, S.(2019)Platform workers, the future of work and Britain’s election. Media@LSE.
In this webinar, Funda Ustek-Spilda and Srujana Katta will talk about the Fairwork Project, an action-research project at the Oxford Internet Institute.
Fairwork highlights best and worst labour practices in the platform economy. Our goal is to show that better, and fairer, jobs are possible in the platform economy and low pay, precarity, and poor working conditions.
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